“Star Trek” was always groundbreaking in diverse casting and pushing the boundaries; the original series had a pointedly multinational crew without people of color being stereotyped, and most famously even interracial kisses were featured on occasion. The next generation was not quite so daring when … Continue readingOne Thought, for a Bolder “Star Trek: The Next Generation”
In the story I’m brainstorming for (see here and here), the tale of a Christmas superstorm that’s rather sprawling but has as its heart Georgia Roadhouse, a character I invented, who has a vacation house in the Shenandoah, the very heart of the storm, and … Continue readingThe Lives of Georgia and Decca: More Thoughts
As even the more casual Star Trek fans know, after the original series came a series of six movies with the same cast. Making a spash with “The Motion Picture”, the second film ended up spawning two direct sequels, forming a trilogy, ending in “The … Continue readingA What-If for the Star Trek Original Movies
In the universe of Star Trek, will the Dominion eventually become the galaxy’s dominant power? An empire of many races all controlled by a secretive and shadowy group of shapeshifters, the Dominion may well be the most interesting of all the Federation’s adversaries, and perhaps … Continue readingOne Dominion to Rule Them All?
What would film be without dialogue? Without those “wonderful lines” that Debbie Reynolds’s character in “Singing in the Rain” considered the sine qua non of true acting? Well, it would still be film; indeed, it might even be better film. The silent era had caption … Continue readingToward More Visual Storytelling
Having offered my own ideas of the direction I think Star Wars should have gone in after the prequels, why not do the same with Star Trek? Indeed, the courses of the two franchises in the 21st century to date have been remarkably similar in … Continue readingThe New Star Trek I Would Have Made
Why is so much modern science fiction dark and “gritty”, even “dystopian”? We live in dark times, so seeing characters navigate a dark world might speak to our hearts and minds in a way a bright world cannot. Far less excusable in my view is … Continue readingRomantic Realist Science Fiction: A Sublime and Beautiful Future